As you may have heard, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote an every-so-slightly controversial op-ed piece for the New York Times yesterday imploring Americans to use caution with regards to Syria and criticizing President Obama for calling our country “exceptional.”

As you can probably imagine these passive aggressive actions from the world’s foremost “shirt allergy survivor” did not go unnoticed by true patriot Stephen Colbert. He was so enraged, in fact, he had to bottle up his anger in a cooler at the beginning of last night’s episode and then unleash it during the back end of The Colbert Report.

I like to think of this as America’s official response. Especially from the 1:55 mark on…

Colbert’s Putin impersonation > All other Putin impersonations.

And here’s the opening segment where Colbert puts said rage in a cooler after discovering Drudge Report and Putin have been rummaging his Facebook page for photoshop-able material.

Not to mention the fact that his wife is almost never seen with him (I don’t remember but they may have been working on a divorce fairly recently). Really, for such a “masculine” dude, he is NEVER seen with women around.

he was having an affair with a pro tennis player and has been unofficial divorced from his wife for almost a decade. I’m not defending his policies, I’m just saying that its a bit ironic that you are insulting his homophobic government by calling him gay.

I’m surprised the interview with the ex-CIA/FBI guy wasn’t on here. I think that was the only time a Colbert guest has left me bug-eyed and mouth agape. His obvious disdain for Stephen (we’re on a first name basis), the fact that he clearly didn’t want to be there, and the actual substance of what he was saying. Even Stephen was dumbfounded.

I didn’t get that impression at all. The guy was an old-school curmudgeon (“I don’t own a TV, it turns your brain to cotton candy”), but I didn’t feel that he had disdain specifically for Colbert, nor that the substance of his comments on Syria and al Qaeda were crazy.

I’ll watch it again if I can muster up the energy to grab the remote or type in something in the address bar. But I felt like Colbert was trying to make jokes and he just wasn’t interested. And his body language to me was really dismissive. And I guess I meant more in terms of what he was saying about renditioning people and how candid he was about his lack of regret about it. I don’t remember what he was saying about Syria and AQ. It was cool to see someone in that position be so honest about what he’d done. But it was surprising to me nonetheless. Good entertainment though.

I think the lack of sense of humor/dismissiveness is fair, but again, I think that’s just because he’s a curmudgeon who doesn’t own a TV and didn’t seem to get that like anything else, there’s good and bad TV. I guess I just read that as general old man crankiness rather than disdain for Colbert himself.

Totally agree about seeing some be so honest about his past, though. And his comments about Syria (not wanting to have to tell future generations that we were too scared to stop an all-out slaughter) really resonated for me.

Ohhhh right. Yeah that was a strange comment (the one about future generations). But yes he’s definitely a curmudgeon. I just vaguely remember Steve trying to make some joke and the guest looking at him like “you aren’t worth my time.” And I love how whenever someone doesn’t have a TV, they make sure to tell you within three minutes of meeting you haha.

I’m an independent, but damn Obama has done a terrible job on this issue (I do not watch FOX so please spare me that red herring). That being said, Putin has had an easy time playing both Obama and Bush to the extent that he can. That guy is a first class asshole who believe the collapse of the USSR was a tragedy for Western Civilization. His regressive policies make Nikita Khrushchev look like Boris Yeltsin.

You really cannot trust autocratic Russian politicians…going back several hundred years.

What I love about western views on Russia, is the amount of disdain given to this incredibly corrupt system, verging on totalitarian state, where the people are oppressed and its not far from its soviet days. This is because of how ignorant we are (resident of Britain) in seeing how corrupt our societies are. The militaristic economy of America, which thrives on war and has arguably reached a state where constant warfare is not only inevitable but necessary. (the forging of WMD evidence an example, the unemployment rate in california plummeting during war time). The pushing through of obama care, the patriot act all these things definitely resemble democracy, fucking NSA prism for fuck sake thats a lot of fucks. Well at least people can sleep well in Europe and across the pond knowing that our political status is better than those damn commie ruskies.
I’m not saying Russia is perfect, far from it, I am just saying that Putin has done a lot for the country and he was the leader Russia needed, maybe not the one they wanted. Concerning the anti-gay stuff, deplorable yes, democratic? unfortunately yes as well. The majority really agree with it and thats sad.
This guy is a first class asshole who protects his country and doesn’t take shit from the international bully that america has become. Condemning England for not supporting it militarily, just like it did in vietnam.

Apologies if there are a lot of errors and stuff like that, or if it sounds rushed and incoherent. I just find it funny and weirdly frustrating that a country where it is legal in more states to marry your first cousin than marrying your same sexed partner can throw stones. Or where Racism in the police force is rampant (Cali shots at you), or where an entire state (Florida) is bat shit crazy, can condemn the civil right infringements of Russian laws.
It’s time for the western world to get its head out of its golden asshole

The only reason the world has so much dirt on the USA, is because the USA is much more open. Why, for example is wikileaks not publishing loads of data on Russia and China? Well surely, it must because they are fine, upstanding states that don’t do things like go to war in foreign lands, spy on their own citizens, etc. *rolleyes*

At least we in the USA have recourse. Bring up Vietnam, NSA prism, torture, war, etc. All bad, but the people have the power to change that without much fear of arrest. While Russia uses traditional hatred of the West and gays to distract from the increasingly autocratic policies of its pseudo-dictator, the USA has been dramatically expanding rights for gay people. Americans are challenging things, from obamacare, to spying, and they could do far more without being arrested.

Try doing that in Russia today. Dozens of dead journalists and imprisoned activists might advise against that. Russia’s military actions are only less “bullying” than America’s because of its reduced military capacity following decades of economic mismanagement.

As far as racism goes, Europe as a whole has no moral highground on this issue, especially Russia. None whatsoever. As imperfect as our society and legal system are, would anyone seriously place Russia on par with the USA? Or anywhere near? The members of Pussy Riot, and anti-Putin activists probably would not.

And past bad behavior does not disqualify a country from doing good in the present or future (Russia should remember that, because they have an important role to play in the world). If it did, no country would be able to act with any credibility. Very few important world players have done all good, all the time. I’ll take the LAPD and the US Constitution (which by the way allowed for for groups like African Americans to challenge racist laws) over Putin’s harsh new anti-freedom of speech laws any day.

The Wikileaks documents isn’t some sort of magical entity, wasn’t it just a consortium of American Intelligence files, hence only dirt on America? I’m not sure you can qualify war, torture and then add an etc even for shorthands sake. All these wars defending the freedom of the world are just a campaign for a neo-colonial empire America is attempting to establish in the middle east. This American hegemony is just absurd and using justice and humanity as a thin veil is pathetic. You also can’t say that Russia isn’t bullying people like America simply because of its mismanaged Army funds for two reasons. One being that, its a terrible point, I don’t mean that as an insult (even though these next few words may sound harsh), but saying that russia doesn’t invade and steam roll “in the name of peace” due to a smaller military (3rd largest in the world???) is irrelevant. Also because its military is still one of the largest and most powerful not only through force but also tech.
I was saying that American and European Racism is nearly as bad as Russian if not as bad, you misunderstood me. So would I in concerns to the anti-freedom of speech in an ideal society, but you will find that in America and England more people are getting fired and almost jailed (twitter jokes about terrorism getting people deported) even with these laws in place.
What pussy riot did was outrageous, i’m not even religious but it was incredibly disrespectful and stupid, in one of russia’s main churches. Do we really have to debate the suffragist and suffragettes and whether or not all publicity is good publicity? I understand womens rights are not where they should be across the globe, but that act didn’t do any favours to the movement in regards to gaining new support.
There isn’t that much hatred for the west in Russia as there once was. The same could be said about pro gay policies, the only reason that it is being pushed so far in liberal countries is to distract people from the economic crisis and other shady dealings. I’m not saying I believe that, but I do think its as valid as what you are saying about him distracting the Russian people about these laws that they in general support.
You are right, Americans are challenging this and get off scott free, especially Snowden and that other cross dressing “traitor”.
The worst part about America’s racism is how institutionalised it is, rampant in the police force and in a lot of business, so don’t say that Europe can’t hold its head up high, when there are entire states were POC aren’t welcome (slight exaggeration). You really are in denial with how civilised America is in terms of equality.
I never said Russia doesn’t spy on its own citizens but most of the things that end up being American dirty secrets are done openly in Russia, its not ok, but they some how have the nerve not to give a hoot.
I agree that Russians may be less able to prevent infringing legisleture, but at the end of the day when it really matters so do Americans. You shot down SOPA and then its retarded sister reared its head, when that crashed and burned its turns out they have had PRISM for a while.
Anyway my point being that, America is so far from perfect that I really don’t think it can preach to Russia about how its screwing its people.

If the definition of a “neo-colonial empire in the middle east” is “When a country invades another, overthrows one government and allows the people to choose their own” it seems like a rather pointless argument. In Iraq, the government is closely allied with Iran, which is hardly to the advantage of the USA in any respect. As for the “war for oil” talk, sure doesn’t seem like the USA is hell-bent on enslaving that country and extracting its petroleum reserves. Then you have Afghanistan, where Hamid Karzai routinely criticizes the US, and opposes a host of US measures including rapprochement with the Taliban and anti-corruption initiatives. I’ve never defended the greater war on terror, especially the Iraq piece, but in the aftermath of the invasions, the USA has spent hundreds of billions on infrastructure and has had the governments they are supporting turn against them (with no imperial measures like martial law and overthrow of the government imposed on Iraq and Afghanistan). Or perhaps you missed the part where the USA and Iraq failed to come to an agreement on the status of forces in that country, after which almost every single US soldier left the country. If that’s what you call a neo-colonial empire, I think we need to look at new definitions for what “empire” actually means.

And nevermind Russia’s own military adventures in recent decades, in Georgia, Chechnya, and what was that other one…oh yeah supplying arms to Assad’s government in Syria. You could apply this logic to any of the 5 members of the Security Council.

“…you will find that in America and England more people are getting fired and almost jailed (twitter jokes about terrorism getting people deported) even with these laws in place.” More people than where? Russia? You cannot be serious. In July, four Dutch citizens were arrested in Russia for violating “gay propaganda” laws. I believe several Russian reporters have been killed over the last decade, many under suspicious circumstances. Last month, the Russian Sports minister threatened to arrest openly pro-gay athletes and spectators at the Sochi Olympics. Then of course there’s this, just a small sample of what has been going on for a long time in Russia under Putin’s reign: “Human Rights Watch has cataloged “government efforts to intimated several organizations and individuals who have investigated or spoken out against the abuse of migrant workers, the impact of the construction of Olympics venues and infrastructure on the environment and health of residents, and unfair compensation for people forcibly evicted from their homes,” the group said in a release this week. It has also documented harassment and criminal charges filed against journalists in apparent “retaliation for their legitimate reporting.”

America has strong legal measures in place to protect people against racist practices in business and government. That doesn’t mean we can stop all racists from being so, but there is recourse for a change. I’ve travelled all over the world and I’ve seen racism in many countries including the US. But it is a huge myth that the US is somehow much more racist than other countries. There are tons of well-known examples of racism in the US, but Europe and Asia can’t continue to hide endemic problems with the issue forever: [www.cnbc.com][world.time.com][www.vice.com]

My real takeaway from this is not that one country is more guilty of racism than another, but that the US shoulders a hell of a lot of the blame for racism, at least in part because of its global reach and media. The whole world knows about Rodney King and Trayvon Martin. That’s why when I was drinking in a bar in South Korea a few years ago with a black American, the server came up and asked incredulously, “You are friends?” when I answered in the affirmative, he was blown away saying, “but you are Aryan”. Meanwhile, many parts of Asia are intensely xenophobic, and maintain populations that are “ethnically pure” to the tune of over 90%. In the age of globalism, this is pretty rare because ethnicities travel and settle widely in different countries and continents. So you see racism in America illustrated by the wide range of ethnicities and problems that occur within an incredibly diverse society. In places like Japan or Poland, racist incidents are rarely transmitted to viewers around the world. Racism is different in many countries and illustrated by harsh laws that prevent immigration and intermarriage. Again, I’ll take the LAPD which may have racist members, but is fully accountable to the people of California and the US Constitution over entire countries where racism is enshrined in law. Your point about “entire states where POC’s aren’t welcome” is ludicrous. Some of the traditional centers of racism in the USA, from Chicago, to Atlanta, to Louisiana have long traditions of racial minorities in high political offices.

However, these are really distractions from the central issues here which is Syria. For the record, I am against US military intervention in Syria, as I was in Libya. That doesn’t mean I agree with your nihilistic viewpoint on humanitarian intervention. By your logic, no country which has done bad in the past has any right to criticize another country’s bad acts, or to do any good whatsoever. And if you are keeping track of world affairs that way, your ledger is very much out of balance because it does not take into account the billions that the USA spends every single year in humanitarian aid. It doesn’t take into account the USA’s responses to recent disasters in Indonesia, New Zealand, Haiti, and Japan; just a few examples from the last few years. The hated American war machine also provided most of the logistics for many humanitarian responses because few other countries actually have the capacity to move large amounts of relief supplies. So your criticism of the USA is one-sided and myopic. I’m not saying the US always has, is, or will do pure good. But if you only point out the bad things the US has done, you are as blind and foolish as those who only point out the good.

Furthermore, if we follow your model of world affairs, no country which has done bad, can do good, or criticize those who are doing bad. Thus, events in Syria, Tibet, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, etc., can never be resolved by the international community. If, by your logic, America cannot criticize Russia over Syria, it will be very hard to find a country that can criticize the USA over anything at all.

Well that will teach me to spend half an hour writing a comment and then not copying it into a Word document before hitting post. So the condensed version:

Your nihilistic vision of the world is one-sided and ridiculous. No country has done all good, all the time. Therefore, the international community is made up of a collection of states with very sketchy records on issues ranging from human rights, to colonialism, to war. If, by your logic, the United States cannot criticize Russia over Syria because of its own past bad behavior, few countries can criticize the USA over anything at all. Under that model, international diplomacy is impossible. Run down the list of countries that can never intervene on the world stage because of their past mistakes and bad policies. What are we left with? Fiji? The Seychelles?

The issue of the day is Syria and Russia’s support for a regime that has used chemical weapons several times against civilian populations. I know America’s “neo-colonial empire in the middle east” is a pretty sickening sight, what with Hamid Karzai’s intense criticism of and opposition to the US on a wide range of issues including political and economic corruption. And the Iraqi government’s alignment with Iran, and the failure to agree on the status of US forces in Iraq which led to the departure of US troops. That’s one hell of an empire all right. Because we all know the colonial model is founded on letting the host nation pick its own government and then kick out the invader while aligning with the colonial power’s enemies and denying access to natural resources. Because that’s not pretty much the exact opposite of how colonialism is supposed to work.

But we need to get past America’s shining colonies in Iraq and Afghanistan and realize that past bad behavior does not permanently disqualify a country from doing good. This is something Russia seems to have remembered at the 11th hour while brokering a deal to rid Syria of chemical weapons after supporting Assad’s regime (in return for a naval base in the Mediterranean, which was totally just for distributing caviar and Easter bread right?).

That is why it is called neo-colonial and I used the word “attempting”. I enjoyed your response, but too much of it was focused on the neo-colonial aspect of my reply, and by going back and re reading your reply you really have not understood what neo-colonial and attempting mean haha, but anyway that is not really the focus of my point. I was only pointing out the bad America has done, because that was my point. America does all these things, the same infringements, maybe not on a federal level, but on a state level. Sometimes even Federal and then condemns others for doing it, saying its against its very creed. That is not only hypocritical but also unfair. For instance the war that America so openly opposed in Georgia, was one where the Russian people in Ossetia came under attack by Georgian forces. I’m not saying I agree with it, but it is more legitimate than any war America has been (that I can think of) post 1945. Chechyna (im not well versed in) but I believe it was in order to quell extremists and terrorist who were crossing into russia and killing civilians.
First of I have never said in any of those posts that people who have done bad things in the past can’t do good in the present. That would be absurd, especially for a country. My point was that people are so quick to condemn Russia for its civil rights infringements when they are suffering from the same problems and more importantly refuse to acknowledge them.
The killing of journalists is an interesting point. What about that British scientist that was burned during the Iraq investigations? Also you have refused to acknowledge the existence of snowden and the other traitor? What about them? Thats legitimate journalism, yeah they haven’t been killed, but it would be much better to give them the legal system’s death penalty then mysteriously disappear.
I am afraid you have shown your bias in the syria crisis. There is only evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, but not who used them. So to immediately jump behind the war machine in order to defend these rebels (which is Obama’s official stance and to topple the regime) The rebels have threatened to launch chemical weapons at Israel and have done various atrocious acts. My point being, why support an extremist rebellion in order to provide aid to the civilian population. Stop taking shots at Putin’s character. You said it your self if he has done baad things in the past it is irrelevant he can do good, which he has been by peacefully negotiating a confiscation of WMD.
No definitely, America has never turned a blind eye to unfavourable policies due to their base in Turkey… or Israel.
That is my argument, America thinks its the world police and hold the bar for civil rights, its time for them to get of the high horse and attempt to resolve diplomatic crisis in a peaceful way and not immediately jump to its army card.
Just remembered to you seem to have ignored my war economy point. Your point about the spending of trillions of dollars in iraq and Afgahinistan is valid, but also irrelevant. Do you know how many contracts have been given to American companys to build this infrastructure. America has proven time and time again that it will only intervene on a humanitarian basis when there is some sort of benefit for them. (Sudan currently, Israel/Palestine) and the same shit went down during Vietnam (south Africa, greece, yada yada).
To reiterate, never will I say nor have I said that a country who has done bad cannot condemn others, I am saying to roll a turd in glitter and call it a diamond (or what ever the expression is lol).